Sunday, November 13, 2011

Week 13 Blog

The theme of story telling was very apparent, and as the narrator explains, "Disbelief was permanently suspended, for nobody expected truth or information, just he pleasure of being in the story and, maybe, passing it off as their own. It was different in America: the incessant perpetuation of collective fantasies makes people crave the truth and nothing but the truth- reality is the fastest American commodity." This simple theme of story telling further enlightens the difference in America and other countries. Also, it shows how immigrants are able to view certain rituals. He also explained how Rora was the ideal story teller who could capture his audience and read whether to withhold information, balance suspense, or qualify his laughter.

One quote I found very interesting and insightful was when Brik says, "A human face consists of other faces- the faces you inherited or picked up along the way, or the ones you simply made up- laid on top of each other in a messy superimposition." It seems such a different way of looking at the human face.

When Brik describes his wife as a "full-blooded American", it was interesting to see his description. It was filled of baseball, kindness, smiles, using "we", receiving a car for her 16th birthday, and wanting to make a difference. It seems to me that these are all good things, and things Americans should be proud of. I couldn't tell whether he was laughing at the matter, or being serious.

I found it much more difficult to follow the story of Lazarus than the story of Brik and Rora's travels. Perhaps the story of Lazarus was more difficult due to the names, and broken story line.

Brik is constantly bashing Christianity and faith, and it also seems as if he is curious and searching for some sort of faith of his own.